So Long, Boys (UPDATED)

While I’m sure many of you heard by now that Lucas Giolito was reassigned to minor-league camp – along with Erik Davis, Burke Badenhop, and Michael Brady – our resident keeper of The Big Board, Springfield Fan, alerted me to a set of releases that happened last week (H/T as always):

RHP Justin Amlung (Hagerstown)

RHP Calvin Copping (GCL)

RHP Ian Dickson (Potomac)

RHP Brian Dupra (Harrisburg)

RHP Scott McGregor (Syracuse)

RHP Drew Van Orden (Hagerstown)

LHP Darin Gorski (Offseason pickup)

LHP David Napoli (Hagerstown)

LHP Jake Walsh (Potomac)

C Zach Wright (Potomac)

No real surprises here. These are the proverbial “other shoe(s)” to drop for the minor league free agents that were signed during the offseason. Let’s not forget that for some, if not most, of these guys this means their days as a professional baseball player are over.

UPDATE
As noted in the comments, several more cuts have been posted on MiLB.com:

UT Ricky Hague (Syracuse)

RHP Jon Velasquez (Offseason pickup)

IF Reegie Corona (Harrisburg)

OF Estarlin Martinez (Potomac)

RHP Deion Williams (Hagerstown)

RHP Adam Boghosian (Auburn)

RHP Kida De La Cruz (GCL)

It’s always embarrassing when a watchlist player gets released (Martinez), especially in spring training, but it’s still a mild surprise because he had just turned 24 (March 8). The saga of the lone HS bat signed in 2011 (Williams; converted to RHP in 2012) also comes to a close, as does a couple of pitchers from the past two drafts (De La Cruz, 2014; Boghosian, 2015).

42 Commments

I’m a little surprised by Van Orden and Dickson. Both had gotten a little old for their levels but had still been reasonably effective. They may get looks from other organizations. I guess the Nats are clearing out the lower levels for the huge crop of arms moving up from Auburn.

Van Orden’s collapsing K rate and awful K/BB rate last year are likely what did him in. It goes to show just how how fierce the competition is as a player tries to move up the ladder–especially if they are a college draftee.

I was sort of surprised that Hague was back last season. It is sort of the end of an era, though, as he’s been around the system forever. He was a third-round pick who just never progressed at the plate in the pro game.

I don’t know whether anyone will pick up on this comment, but it seems appropriate under “So Long Boys.” Tyler Moore is on waivers and may not be a Nat much longer. As I thought about it, I started to wonder whether Moore had the “greatest” career of any Nat minor leaguer. Yeah, there were the superstars who blew through quickly and may have had a spectacular year or two, but Moore had back-to-back 31-HR years and 107 career MiLB homers in the Nats’ system. His MiLB OPS is .823.

Who would be other nominees? Souza had 93 HRs and 421 RBIs as a Nat minor leaguer (to 435 RBIs for Moore), and he destroyed the IL in 2014. But he also had some real downs to go with his ups. Michael A. Taylor didn’t really put everything together until 2014, either.

Anyway, just something to ponder. I’d be interested to see some other nominees.

Moore is a good candidate, but I think you have to pick Souza here. For two seasons (2013-14) he was arguably the best offensive player in all of minor league baseball, not just the Nats system. He had a .953 OPS in AA in 2013, followed by his monster AAA year in 2014 (and his .938 OPS across two leagues in 2012 is nothing to sneeze at). He certainly got off to a slow start, but once it came together for him, he put up three monster seasons in a row. Throw in a highlight-reel catch in JZimm’s no-hitter and it added up to drawing outsize value in a trade (Turner and Ross for Souza, really?).

I guess the other candidate might be Billy Burns. He had three full seasons with the Nats with OBP of .367, .432, and .425. Certainly could make a case for “best leadoff hitter in the minors” over that period.

On the pitching side, maybe Tommy Milone? I can’t think of many guys that have put up multiple quality seasons in the minors without getting traded.

Milone is a good thought on the pitching side, with his three straight 12-win seasons. I know that wins don’t mean much, all the more so in the minors, but it’s still impressive in a way. Actually in looking at Austin Voth, his secondary stats over the last three seasons have been better than Milone’s were in that three-year stretch. He could become a contender here with another strong year. Who else? A. J. Cole and Taylor Jordan have both been around a long time and have mixed in some very good years. In the earlier years, the big club was so desperate for pitchers that guys who could locate the plate didn’t stay down on the farm very long.

It’s an interesting concept, but there’s an element of “tallest midget” to it, as you did acknowledge. You have to be good, but not quite good enough to be in the majors, and not quite good enough for other teams to ask for you in a trade.

Although I should add that all of these guys were, at a certain level, outstanding ball players, some ultimately more outstanding than others. Desmond has had a near-all-star career in the majors, Milone has carved a decent MLB career, and as NG has noted, Souza made himself so attractive that he brought a prospect mother lode in trade.

I see that Moore has cleared waivers and, unless he gets traded, may be back in Syracuse padding his Crash Davis totals.

The deeper one ponders guys cuts
Hsgue : too many bodies around him
In Cuse
Estarlin. No power in HR tallies
Webb is next
Plus I have learned that brass goes with
Less is more.
Corona means Stephen Perez will handle UTL
Role as grissoms kids push up.

a) The cuts reflect a great depth of arms in the system. In my unqualified estimation, there were cuts here who went faster that would have happened in other years. The prime example here is van Orden. A recent draft pick and polished colege product, he started very well last year and faded. A fifth round pick, and with the smarts of a Duke pedigree. When someone like that is bounced that soon, it tells me it is a brute numbers game. Jake Walsh is a guy that many of us have wondered why he was not being promoted, based on performance — he never failed to even raise the idea that he could not make it. Thus the lefty relief situation in the lower minors is improving. Amlung showed some promise last year after being picked up — and he resigned after the year as a FA. So again, this tells me that the crop of arms washing up on the lower minors had too much to offer.

b) No Dominican program and GCL 13 arms among those released. The tide is rolling one level up with a number of players who could have been release candidates, but the Nats are clearly keeping them in the system. These are folks who will be competing at Hagerstown and Potomac this year.

c) Scott McGregor out means a AAA rotation that is fortified with near MLB players and no retreads. It will be interesting when the dust settles to see how many retread/fill-ins populate the rosters even as position players. The organization, depth wise and health wise, has taken a big step forward.

d) It’s nice to see that Syracuse will give Billy Gardner a roster with many dynamic players. Those fans got screwed a couple of years ago in the playoffs when the Nats drained their talent. Now they will have even more than expected, with Tyler Moore there as an everyday player.

We got Ian Krol on March 21. The longer this takes, the better I think for the Nats (they get a longer look at someone playing in minor league camps).

Michael Brady has proved to be quite a bit better than a throw in. AAA pitching is stacked. So is A-. My bet is on A+-starting or AA lefthanded starting pitching, or A- catching if Jakson Reetz had a bad spring or is still ailing, or a high tools international talent at a very low level.

And farewell indeed to Tyler Moore, traded to the Braves for 6’8″ 1B Nate Freiman, who presumably will play at Syracuse. I saw T-Mo play at Potomac in 2010, and he began his Nat MiLB career in 2008, so it’s been a long ride for him. And of course he will always have a place in legend with the big club with the game-winning pinch hit for the first playoff game win ever in 2012.

Kind of odd that the Braves just didn’t claim Moore while he was on waivers. Do they now have to pay his whole salary instead of the Nats being on the hook for a quarter of it as they would have had he been claimed?

My best memories of seeing Tyler in person was a home run he hit at Nats Park in 2013, the mop up inning he pitched last year (and the resulting ovation as he walked off the field having pitched a scoreless inning) and watching him in the 2010 Carolina League playoffs.

Yes, but they don’t *have* to put Moore on the 40-man roster immediately — though he is a rather expensive insurance policy for Freddie Freeman. Hmmm. Freiman’s a former Athletic… wonder if he’ll get flipped back to Oakland?

Mewonders big Nate may be a Lerner boytoy. Local product who was star of Israel National team two years ago. Same Nats drafted a Hebrew School product at catcher (who went on to college). Harmless, if he produces. If not, Rizzo gets style points among the players for letting Moore get another chance at the dream for bag o’ balls and 900K less.

One more reason why the WashPo character assassination of the Lerners/Rizzo really makes me sick. No poison this spring, clubhouse perfectly fine, but no word from WaPo that they might have simply overplayed their “inside” knowledge.